St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-08-28
The French Still Having Trou-
BILE With the HovaS Of
Madagascar.
Fresh Complications Arising
Regarding Affairs in
Afghanistan.
Canadian Pacific officials
Arouse Japanese Com
mercial Energy.
BY Cable to the Globe.

| LONDON, Aug. 27.-When John Bright
announced on Thursday that he would
support the'gOvernment i'll its policy of
proclaiming the Irish National league,
all doubts were removed regarding the
| position which Lord Harrington would
assume. The con junction of Mr.. Bright
and Lord Harrington is not uncommon,
but it is always interesting. Many of
! his friends have heard Lord Harrington
tell the story of the first occasion upon
which Mr.. Bright exercised an import
ant influence upon his political career.
Lord harrington entered the house of
commons in 1857, and was not well
| pleased with his early progress. He
was neither fluent nor energetic. About
1860 he met Mr.. Bright at the King S
Arms, in Lancaster, and held a long
! and important talk with him upon par
liamentary life. MI. Bright had recOg-
nized the dignity and steadfastness of
his character, and urged Lord Harting-
ton to devote himself assiduOusly to the
parliamentary work. Lord Harrington
refers to this conversation as having
had
IMMENSE INFLUENCE
| with him, and traces to that accidental
| interview much of his resolution to per-
severe in political war and much of
such fame as he modestly believes HIM
self to have achieved. In the next
fourteen years their relations of mutual
| confidence grew closer, and in 1874 Mr..
| Bright exercised all his influence. which
| was never SO great as then. to secure
| the election of Lord Harrington as
| leader at the great meeting of the Lib
| efal party in the Reform club. 1t is
hardly too much to say that he was the
! nominee of Mr.. Bright. From that time
they have had many differences of
opinion, especially upon England'S
African, Asian and European policy,
blt; Mr.. Bright has never varied i'm his
admiration for Lord Hartington's clear
judgment and hart-headedness of pur-
pose. Probably their agreement has
been most complete in regard to Ire
land, though Nj. Bright could not have
sympathiZed with Lord Hartington's
doubts as to the franchise. The Liberal
Unionists, who voted with the govern
ment, were compelled to support Lord
Salisbury by the fact that the prime
minister was between two fires and they
had assisted to place him there, unwit-
tingly, it is true. Not to proclaim the
league was 10 acknowledge
THE SESSION WASTED.
TO proclaim it, on the other hand,
was to substitute the present tranquility
of all almost crimeleSs Ireland for an
embittered and exhausting struggle
which must end in the substitution of
the worst kind of secret societies for
the league, and, which will probably
bring about the crimes the crimes act
was nominally passed to prevent. The
crimeless state of Ireland is undoubtedly
surprise and an embarrassment to
rne government. As they proceeded
with the crimes bill, the grounds for it,
never very large, grew smaller and
smaller, until it has become difficult for
conscientious men to make use of it.
Between being unScrupulOuS and ap-
pearing ridiculous it was necessary to
choose, and the hesitation of the gov
ernment to proclaim the league was
Just what might have been expected.
1t is really impossible any longer to pre-
tend that the league is an organization
which creates and fosters crime. So
far as its power extends it is used to re-
press crime. When a popular asSocia-
tion plays such part as this
i'll country at all times
difficult to govern. and where it is pc
culiarly difficult to detect and punish
certain kinds of crime. the government
of that country would do well to look
upon it without excess of jealousy. If
such an association has gained its
strength by presenting itself in
the light of an earthly providence to the |
majority OF the pOpulace, and there is
the evidence of impartial outsiders like |
Samuel Lainy, that the Irish farmers |
believe the league to have been their |
salvation" The question for the gov
ernment to consider is whether it can |
undermine that influence. not by forci- |
bly, suppressing the association, but by |
taking its place and doing its work. In
other words, the National league has. |
broadly speaking, gained its influence
by protecting the tenant from eviction
for the nOn-payment of unjust rent.
Sometimes, perhaps. it has interfered |
when the rent was just, but such cases
were fewer than was commonly sup
posed, and it is the fact that the league
required to be satisfied as to the merits
of every case of nOn-payment of
of Threatened eviction before it inter-
fered. If, therefore. the governmental
Ireland can extend the same protection
still more effectually and under all the
forms of law, il will render the aSsOcia-
ton comparatively feeble without the
least necessity for the declaration of
war implied in openly suppressing it.
Dispatches received this afternoon
FROM MADAGASCAR
state that the position of affairs there is
but satisfactory for the French
authorities. Nothing has occurred to
diminish the extreme tension in the re-
lationS between the French resident and
the Malagasy prime minister Oh the sub
ject of the granting of consular exc
quaturs, both parties claiming that
right. The French authorities COM
plain of repeated denials of justice at
the British consulate. They allege that
the British consul at Tamatave refuses
to compel his cOuntrymen to pay their
debts or to give judgment against them.
cause of difficulty arises out of
the mode of collecting the customs dues.
At the six principal ports these are col
lected by the agents of the Paris bank
which advanced the money to pay the
French Indemnity, and are levied as far
as possible i'll cash. At all the other
ports, however. the 10 per cent. duty is
by the HOvaS authorities in
kind The result is that, as payment in
cash is a burden to importers. they go,
when they can, to the ports where the
Ifeya authorities collect and avoid the
ports in the hands of the French agents,
i'd the detriment of the security of the
French bank for its loan. The latter
now seeks to establish its agents, not
only in the six ports specified by treaty,
but also in every other center OF trade